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ratherBiasedGate memo comparison

2004-09-19T15:44:00.000+01:00

A side-by-side comparison of the ra^therBiased forgeries, and officially released memos by Lt Colonel Killian.
Joseph Newcomer's indepth technical analysis of the ra^therGate (C)BS forgeries (mirrored here)
Little Green Footballs easily recreated the incredibly ineptly-forged memos in Microsoft Word.

MemoGate: A Texan's message to (C)BS's dan rather

2004-09-19T13:35:00.000+01:00

The Road Less Graveled
And ratherBiased has a MemoGate cartoon roundup

Wise words

2004-09-12T18:47:00.000+01:00

Brian Micklethwait over at Samizdata shares some educational wisdom with us.

I like to read the biographies of high achievers. I am struck by how often Life starts extremely early for such people, perhaps because of a family catastrophe or because of a catastrophically hopeless father who dumps all his responsibilities onto our hero, aged ten. By the time they reach the age of those daytime TV watching graduates, they are at least ten years ahead of them, career-wise, and often more like thirty.

Three Years Ago

2004-09-11T14:27:00.000+01:00

Building the World Trade Center
The 11^th of September 2001
In pictures
Memorial
The Victims
The Falling Man
Remembered
Or Forgotten already?

Fighting the deathcult

2004-09-11T13:51:00.000+01:00

Sooner of later, the price will have to be paid in full.

deathcult websites (!!! Warning! Graphic content !!!)
Civilization and its Enemies

deathcult raped Beslan schoolchildren

2004-09-06T14:37:00.000+01:00

Raping of Russian school children by the muslimists is now confirmed

!!! muslimists made film of raping the schoolchildren !!!

These accounts by children and adults who survived, all correspond with the standard muslimist virus behaviour-programming, exhibited ever since the deathcult virus was constructed some 14 centuries ago and began to spread around the globe, exterminating everything in its path.

A closer look at the deathcult

2004-09-05T13:54:00.000+01:00

Here is another snippet of information that helps to form the complete picture of how the deathcult virus is contructed and how it therefore is programmed to behave; what the presstitution industry, leftists and other nihilists keep referring to as "root causes".

Deathcult massacre of school children

2004-09-05T03:28:00.000+01:00

Summary of the deathcult mass murder of Russian school children and their parents and teachers:
One or two nail bombs, that the deathcult set in the gym where all the children were being kept hostage, exploded; some kids then tried to escape and the deathcult shot them in the back while they were running away from the school. The Russian troops, who had not planned to storm the building, returned fire trying to prevent the deathcult from murdering the kids while escaping. The deathcult then blew up the gymnasium with all the children inside.

The death toll so far:
The official total for the number of hostages is 1,191.
There are 323 people dead, 156 of them children.
270 bodies have been identified.
And 260 people are missing!!!

The deathcult certainly planned this well in advance and specifically picked the first day back at school in order to take as many children and parents (as well as the teachers) hostage as it could.
As soon as the deathcult took over the school, it immediately started murdering the Russian hostages; the people murdered in the courtyard, during the initial attack on Wednesday, were just left there to rot.

Nice...

These sites have detailed accounts of the deathcult's attack and mass murder of the Russian schoolchildren and their parents and teachers.
Command Post
Logic Sanity
More translations of Russian news wires

BTW. Have you noticed how busy the deathcult has been recently?
deathcult attacks school
deathcult blows up bus murdering 16 people
deathcult murders 10 people in busy Moscow street
deathcult murders 12 Nepalese hostages
The deathcult's covert war against the US
deathcult murders 20 people in Kirkuk

Not to forget the 2 Russian passenger planes that the deathcult blew up in the air last week, murdering nearly one hundred people.

Well, well...
An opinion piece in the presstitution indus... deathcult propagan... "mainstream media" that actually calls a spade a spade?!?
Now that I've picked my jaw up off the floor, here's the article.

A little background on the spread of the deathcult virus in the southern Russian regions:
Beware that, as per usual, the associated presstitutes don't give us the full picture. In the following sentence:
"Although most chechens are muslim..."
they took out the word "now"; or any other word or description for that matter that would have correctly conveyed that this region was once virus-free.
deathcult virus spreads throughout southern Russian regions

The currently best-publicised, ongoing example of how the deathcult virus slowly spreads throughout and infests a region, committing genocide against all who aren't of the deathcult, and finally turns the territory into a totally kuhfar-free, virus-only zone, is of course sudan.

A historically very telling example is indonesia; now the world's most densely virus-infested territory, which was completely virus-free a few hundred years ago.

Finally, do a little observing in the coming week or two.
Just see if you can spot any of those mythical "moderate" muslimists the presstitution industry (and the deathcult with their insistence about being the "religionism of peace™") keeps talking about.
Just see if this mythical "moderate" deathcult distances itself from violent jihad; and I mean *really* distances itself. Not just "objects" because the mass murder of children "harms the image of islam"; or claims that the perpetrators "weren't really muslimists"; or whatever other such form of condoning jihad the deathcult always comes up with.

Just see if you can actually find any of the deathcult virus that really does distance itself...

Then read this to understand why you didn't.

Deathcult massacre of Beslan children

2004-09-05T02:22:00.000+01:00

Having followed, as it unfolded, the deathcult's attack on and mass murder of Beslan schoolchildren, this photo still strikes me the most:

A mother caressing the head of her (dead) child...
Another photo

Here's the full article.

I wonder how many of those children will be our own children, and the mother caressing the head of her child, will be one or more of us, before those still living in denial wake up and assist the rest of us in terminating the deathcult financiers and instigators and finish the job of completely eradicating the deathcult virus.

Photos (!!! Warning: Graphic !!!)

The deathcult shot lots of children in the back while they tried to escape:
"The majority of patients have bullet wounds in the back"

In typical Western presstitution industry, head-in-the-sand, don't-criticize-the-muslimists fashion, the deathcult's attack on the Russian school in Beslan was even worse than is being reported here in the West:

- Ten of the terrorists were arabs. Now there's a surprise. Not.
- "Some terrorists didn't even know what town they were in. The terrorists were screaming something in their language, don't know what, probably praying to allah."
- The deathcult forcibly took and destroyed all mobile phones and threatened to murder 20 random people if anybody was still found hiding a mobile phone.
- Holding up the corpse of a man just shot dead in front of hundreds of hostages, one of the terrorists — pockets stuffed with grenades — warned: "If another child utters even a sound, we'll kill another one."
- Terrorists had a mobile phone and would regularly report to someone on the outside.
- On the first day, people got a tiny bit of water to drink, but no food. After that, nothing.
- The gymnasium was so cramped there was hardly room to move.
- Children were so wired with fear that they couldn't sleep.
- When children fainted from lack of sleep, food and water, the terrorists simply sneered.
- Some children ate plants that were in the building, because they were so hungry.
- In the sweltering heat of the gym, some children drank their urine, because of thirst.
- On the last day of the siege the terrorists did not allow anyone to use the bathroom.
- When the hostages tried to escape and they were shot in the back, one of the terrorists, while firing, was smiling as the children were falling.

- !!! some older children were raped by the muslimists !!!

If you're still sitting on the fence with regards to the long-overdue and necessary extermination of the deathcult virus, you may prefer to not be forced to make your decision in the manner this mother was forced to make hers.

So, if you have kids, who will it be? Your little one-year old son? Your three-year old daughter? Maybe you're expecting, so it will have to be your soon-to-be-born little one?

Choose.

D-Day

2004-06-06T04:45:00.000+01:00

The Meaning of Omaha Beach

The Sixtieth Anniversary of D-Day

In Memoriam: Ronald Reagan 1911 - 2004

2004-06-06T02:41:00.000+01:00

Notwithstanding all that will be said, and written by many people, I would like to let Ronald Reagan speak for himself: The Reagan Information Page; The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation: quotes and speeches; A Life in Letters; In His Own Hand; Speaking my Mind; In His Own Voice; and some soundbytes: 1, 2, 3.

How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. congress.

A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no responsibility at the other.

In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

It is astonishing what you can accomplish if you do not mind who gets the credit.

I've always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

It is not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with us, not over us; stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.

The most terrifying words in the English langauge are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
[Farewell Address to the Nation, 20th January, 1989]

However, our task is far from over. Our friends in the other party will never forgive us for our success, and are doing everything in their power to rewrite history. Listening to the liberals, you'd think that the 1980's were the worst period since the Great Depression, filled with suffering and despair. I don't know about you, but I'm getting awfully tired of the whining voices from the White House these days. They're claiming there was a decade of greed and neglect, but you and I know better than that. We were there.
[RNC Annual Gala, 3rd February, 1994]

Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.

-- Ronald Reagan --

Churchill's Speeches from 1936 to 1946

2004-06-06T01:55:00.000+01:00

I have added several new links; one of them being a link to the Churchill Society's index of speeches that Winston Churchill made in the period leading up to, and during the war years:

Churchill's Speeches

What will the blogosphere think of next?

2004-06-06T00:44:00.000+01:00

MaxSpeak is hosting "The Vicious InstaPundit Blogroll Contest" and not surprisingly, Misha features several times in the nominations.
I especially like the way he sums up the deathcult in this one short sentence (original post here):

I am supposed to "respect" a culture that has produced nothing other than a complete worship of man's most base instincts?

Some quotes

2004-05-31T23:10:00.000+01:00

Came across these little gems in MutantX and Bab5. They describe latte leftistism rather well.
From an early episode of MutantX:

It's classic denial. A mind that can't deal with the facts just willing them out of existence.

From the Babylon 5, season 4 episode The Deconstruction of Falling Stars:

You don't want to know. You only want to speak.

In law, "Ignorance of the law is no defense"
i.e. the fact that you do not know that an act is a crime defined by statute, is no defense if you are charged.
This is something of which all these lazy-thinking leftists, who don't do any of their own research but have strong opinions anyway, should be continually reminded.

Ignorance (of the subject matter at hand) is not a defense

Getting back to "not being able to deal with the facts", we have this well-known quote by that well-known socialist:

A single death is a tragedy,
a million deaths is a statistic.

-- joseph stalin --

Finally - as this post is all about quotes - these words are of great relevance:

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced - even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.

-- John Keats --

Iraq War recollections

2004-05-31T22:37:00.000+01:00

By US Marine Brian Taylor: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

Is the US sometimes it's own worst enemy?

2004-05-31T19:35:00.000+01:00

From Samizdata

I just propose that the only rational way to fight a war is to fight a war, and that means using whatever force is needed to defeat your enemy. This is not exactly a revolutionary concept in most military circles. In the case of Iraq, this just means using the usual range of weapons and tactics and applying them with resolution. There is nothing about Iraq that is at all unusual or outside historical experience to suggest this need be more than a footnote in military history.

Today's quote

2004-05-31T19:34:00.000+01:00

Every society has it's extremists... it's the amount of control, or lack thereof, that a society places upon these individuals that makes a difference

The 7th century deathcult

2004-05-15T16:18:00.000+01:00

Within a century of its creation, the deathcult had already started invading and taking over the middle east and parts of the far east and europe and proceeded to plunge this part of the world into what is nowadays referred to as the Dark Ages.
The deathcult may be using newer technology and tools now, taken from the Westernised cultures and countries of course, but its approach and methods haven't changed at all since the virus began to spread 14 centuries ago.

The deathcult and it's history of beheadings
Pictures of muslimists carrying out their "beliefs"
More detailed history of one of the deathcult's perennial favourites
This guy will soon be joining Salman Rushdie in hiding from fatwas for writing stuff like this
Some stillshots from the video made by the muslimists while murdering Nicholas Berg

Quote of the day

2004-05-15T13:48:00.000+01:00

From BuzzMachine

Our current struggle is the first in our history as a nation in which the roll call of the dead contains a majority of civilians. This is our enemy's goal, for they are murderers, not soldiers.

Quote of the day

2004-03-29T13:41:00.000+01:00

Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety

-- Benjamin Franklin --

Today's quote

2004-03-21T19:45:00.000Z

I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion to spend, I'd be irresponsible too.

-- Al Capone --

I don't feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

-- Galileo Galilei --

Quote of the day

2004-03-20T18:20:00.000Z

It is astonishing what you can accomplish if you do not mind who gets the credit

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.
-- Ronald Reagan --

History repeats itself yet again

2004-03-17T13:38:00.000Z

Before Winston Churchill became Prime Minister and led Britain through WWII, many called him a war-mongerer.

islamism to Spain: "Message received and understood"

2004-03-17T01:14:00.000Z

I have seen comments on this from a variety of angles already. What can almost certainly be said is the following:

We will probably never know for sure what the outcome of the Spanish elections might have been had the mass-murder in Madrid commited by islamists - and probably in conjuction with their eta brethren - not occured.
What we do know however is that, broadly speaking, the following sequence of events took place:

1. Spanish election date was set for the 14th March 2004
2. islamists commit mass-murder with a very high profile terrorist attack against Spanish civilians just a few days before election day
3. The Spanish people then vote with fairly convincing numbers for the socialist opposition
4. New socialist leader immediately blames the US for the mass-murder commited by the islamist deathcult™ and starts the process of withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq

The various elements which provide a context in which to place these events e.g. the islamist deathcult™ 'master plan' to exterminate anything that's not muslimist, which of course includes returning Spain to dar-al-islam; the fascist's (a.k.a. socialist's a.k.a. latte leftist's) renewed confidence in openly spewing their virrulent hatred against the US and the "Jews"; the accompanying, automatic, blind 'assumption' that it's "the Iraq involvement" that's to blame for "making Spain a target"; etc. have been and are being widely discussed by many, so I will not comment on these in this post.

What can be said very simply however is that this is not, to put it mildly, the best of messages to be sending to the deathcult™ at this time.

The relevant quotes and cliches are of course:

Advance with bayonet. If you encounter mush, proceed. If you encounter steel, withdraw.
-- lenin --

Also once again:

The primary lesson of history is "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it"

And in an endeavour not to forget the past, let us remember that many terrorist acts were commited during the last century
1. either well before any conflict had started and resulting in little or no actual retaliatory actions in return - Lusitania anyone?
2. at the onset of the conflict where the attacking party is already waging total war whilst the other party hasn't yet begun to fight the enemy with any means necessary to win - germans waging unrestricted submarine warfare in WWI (which had its reverberations in WWII); Polish cities bombed; Rotterdam bombed; The London blitz and Coventry are some well-known examples

Finally, it is important to realise and remember that terrorism already has been defeated by military means in the past e.g. the British Navy was very successful in the past against the scourge of piracy.

An open letter to the lll

2004-03-13T23:47:00.000Z

Dear latte leftist,

Have a read of this:
Evil's Advantage Over Conscience

And this:
Europe's 9-11

Or maybe you've already put down your latte and left your local cafe to join your looney leftist friends and the others that give you your opinion and the soundbytes ("The Americans should ask themselves blah blah...) you so blithely repeat, in demonstrating against Spain whilst carrying banners blaming the Spanish for this latest in a never-ending stream of terrorist mass-murders?

The Spanish did kick the moors out of Spain back in the 15th century after all. Very legitimate reason for the islamists to kill as many Spanish as possible now.
Once territory is dar-al-islam (as Spain was before the moors were finally kicked out), it must, as the koran states, never become non-muslimist territory again.

Spain did. Bad Spanish for doing that! They therefore "deserve to die!!". The latte left use that all the time against Israel, Iraq and the US, so you'll be using it against Spain now, no doubt.
Or are you employing your legendary double standards again?

You might not want to forget that the moors were beaten back from Vienna in the mid 17th century. Vienna could be next.

You really must ask yourself why the islamists hate you so much. Your ancestors were horrible to those poor innocent, peace-loving moors with their little toy swords. And the islamists have long memories (see all the references the islamists e.g. bin laden make to these historical events).

Here is some useful advice for you so you can come across as 'hip' amongst your looney leftist idiot friends and the political "discussions" you have in your local cafe whilst sipping frappuccinos:
Do not use the word 'terrorist'. Use terms like "militants", "guerillas", "commandos" or even better, "supporters", "fans" and "enthusiasts".

And of course don't forget to keep referring to terrorists with the evergreen, "victim™"; and naturellement blame it on the evil Bushitler™. And now of course also on the evil Aznarhitler™.

Those poor, peace-loving, innocent, "oppressed" al quaeda and eta "supporters" had no other choice but to join forces and "express" themselves in "fighting back" against the evil Americans™.

And the evil Joooos™ of course. Mustn't waste an opportunity to blame everything on them. The nazis certainly didn't. And their offspring, the looney left, continues to carry that torch with the usual blind socialist a.k.a. fascist pride and hate-filled vigour.

How's your memory of history doing? Still conveniently "forgetting" things like the reason for the Crusades? Have you even bothered researching the Crusades?
Still living in your latte leftist 'everything's nice and sugar and spice' fantasy world?

Or are you still arrogant enough to 'believe' that because you wouldn't do something like slit a few dozen stuardess' and captain's throats and then fly several passenger planes into some office buildings, nobody else would either?

Have you even tried to smell the coffee you drink?

God helps those who help themselves

2004-02-08T18:38:00.000Z

Here's a nice little variation on that cliche:

God help those who do not help themselves
-- Wilson Mizner --

Quote of the day

2004-02-04T15:33:00.000Z

From this article [Hat tip LGF]

"The question people are asking is why they hate us. That's the wrong question," said Mr. Lewis on C-SPAN shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. "In a sense, they've been hating us for centuries, and it's very natural that they should. You have this millennial rivalry between two world religions, and now, from their point of view, the wrong one seems to be winning."

He continued: "More generally ... you can't be rich, strong, successful and loved, particularly by those who are not rich, not strong and not successful. So the hatred is something almost axiomatic. The question which we should be asking is why do they neither fear nor respect us?"

Iraq War pictures and recollections

2004-02-03T15:34:00.000Z

US Marine Brian Taylor has posted pictures from the war and writes about it as well: Part 1, Part 2 [Hat tip Tim Blair]

US 2004 elections

2004-02-03T12:46:00.000Z

With the US elections taking place this year, it's worth being reminded of and being clear about what happened the last time round.

Some more Golda Meir quotes

2004-01-30T16:42:00.000Z

"Moses dragged us through the desert for 40 years to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil."

"A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader."

"We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."

"Don't be humble. You aren't that great."

"Whether women are better than men I cannot say, but they are certainly no worse."

"Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either."

The deathcult™ strikes again

2004-01-30T15:56:00.000Z

Little Green Footballs points to the release of this video footage of the latest suicide mass-murder commited by an islamikaze™ of the religionism of peace™ deathcult™; in Jerusalem this time. [Warning! Very graphic]

Is this coming soon to a Rotterdam or paris metro, London underground or Vienna U-Bahn near you?
Most people seem to keep forgetting that the primary lesson of history is "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it".

The LGF comments section makes for the usual very interesting reading. I've picked out a couple of comments that give some insight into the wider picture concerning deathcult™ terrorism perpetrated against Israel:

#40 Doss

I don't know how the people of Israel are so passive that they haven't demanded that their elected officials wage total war on the "Palestinians." This video shows the results of being more concerned with world opinion than with protecting Israeli children and parents. Never again, my ass. It is happening again. Why are Israelis not in the streets by the million demanding that total war be fought to make sure that this never happens again. And on the day that they release hundreds of prisoners. I don't get it. Does Israel have a latent death wish almost as powerful as the overt Pali one? I'm sorry if this sounds callous or disrespectful to my Israelis friends, but how is it that the Israeli public is not taking their leaders to task? The means to prevent most of these attacks is there, why not the will? I don't understand. Wasn't the whole idea behind Zionism and the establishment of the state of Israel to not be at the mercy of other nations and peoples, to be in control of their own security and well-being. If that was the whole point, why is this being allowed to happen. Do the Israelis really care more about what Russian, French, Malaysian, Colombian, American, Syrian, English, Sudanese, and Latvians think than they do that Shmuel is blown apart, Alex is shredded into hundred of pieces, Elad is blinded and paralyzed, Anna is burned over more of her body than not, puncture holes from shrapnel cover Idan's body, the last breath is drawn by David's lungs and Vitslav is shot in the face. Where's the fucking outrage? Why are there no protests of millions in the streets?

#118 Eldad

I'm Joe Israeli. I take the number 19 bus sometimes to the Hebrew University. Another day, another time I could have been in the place of one of the dead or mutilated. Now I can see the sirens from my balcony. No, I don't have a death wish and yes, I am furious and outraged. But what the hell can I do? 3 and a half years ago I was for Meretz and Peace Now, now I'm for Sharon. Thanks to me and hundreds of thousands like me the right has a majority in the Knesset. And so what? The simple fact remains that we cannot answer the fuckers measure for measure. Not because we're too good for that. We're not. And not because we don't want to. We do. But because we live in a democracy. If a commander orders his tanks to level a building where terrorists are hiding and kills a few dozen civilians, he will be burned at the stake by the cynical, backstabbing politicians of the left with the silent acquiescence of the spineless politicians of the right. If the defense minister decides to fight this war like the Americans in Iraq or the Russians in Chechnya, he will end up in jail and the Prime Minister will be out on the street before the smoke clears. Add to this the fact that America wants us to be a puppet, the EU wants us to be a pariah, and the Arabs want us dead. Israelis are not suicidal and we haven't lost our will to live. Don't listen to our politicians and extremists, we're actually very normal. We care for our children just the same as any other people. But we're caught between a rock and a hard place. Let's be frank. What we need to do to win this war is against international and Israeli law, and borders on genocide. There is no other way to win a war against a population of Islamikazees. Traitors in other words. If the men, women and children are blowing themselves up to kill you, that means that you have to fight and kill the men, women and children. And believe me, everyone here understands this. There are very few pro-Oslo idealists left. The Israelis who walk with Peace Now are people who are willing to sacrifice their countrymen (literally) for their idea of what a fair solution should be like. Our democracy isn't capable of winning against the Arab culture of suicide and racist hate. I better stop now because I'm very tired and pissed off, but here's just one final thought for you to consider. Try to look at the situation this way: start from the premise that Israel does want to destroy the terrorists, that she does has the will and the strength. Then work backwards and ask yourself why she cannot achieve that objective.

Regarding the term 'palestinians', Golda Meir said:

"There was no such thing as palestinians, they never existed. Before 1948, we were the palestinians."

Read about the term at Science Daily.

And as Golda Meir once famously said:

"There will be peace in the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews"

That isn't happening though. The religionism of peace™ is a deathcult. And needs to be crushed.
Will the "Infidels" wake up in time to still be able to do so though?

Update: A Jerusalem Post article regarding the release of this video footage.

Today's quote

2004-01-30T13:31:00.000Z

If you would understand your own age, read the works of fiction produced in it. People in disguise speak freely.

The Hutton Inquiry

2004-01-30T11:58:00.000Z

The official Hutton Inquiry website

The Belmont Club makes an interesting comparison and writes beautifully on the subject to boot:

There was Andrew Gilligan, charging the most powerful man in Britain with an empty Palm Pilot at the very point on which he was not prepared to yield. 'You, Mr. Prime Minister, made up the entire cassus belli for invading Iraq', he in effect said, without so much as an electron to stand on.

Every cardinal rule was violated. Attacking the enemy's strongest point with one's greatest weakness. Ignoring the enemy counterattack. Omitting to prepare any defense, or indeed inquire if there were any. Committing the army reserve while in effect pouring it into a sack. Then to crown it all, expecting vindication from the Hutton report when everything pointed to a rout. Where have we seen this before? Why in Hitler, consulting his horoscopes to predict a dramatic change in fortune, even as the US Army poured across the Rhine. In Saddam Hussein, who confidently ordered counterattacks by units that had already gone home. In every organization in which information has absolutely ceased to flow.

The very men who pretended to tell the world about the nuances of the Arab-Israeli conflict and about the cultural currents on a planet hostile to America, could not in the end tell themselves what was in their own correspondent's electronic notebook: even though they had built a towering castle of lies upon it.

An accountant-esque quote

2004-01-29T17:42:00.000Z

A girlfriend is an expense.... a wife is an overhead

Oil, money, power, bribery, corruption, principles (lack thereof) etc.

2004-01-29T01:47:00.000Z

These figures make for unsurprisingly interesting reading. [hat tip InstaPundit]
Some highlights:

1.Syria: 14 individuals total 89 millions barrel. Including the son of minister of defence and Hamiadah Naana.
3.Cyprus: more than 33 millions including Mohammad Alhoni editor of AlArab newspaper who got 17 millions! Plus other 2 companies
4.Turkey: 11 individuals with 82.5 millions
11.Malaysia: 4 with 84.5 millions
17.Italy: 8 for 61.5 millions including church priest and companies
22.UK: 2 for 55.5 millions including George Galloway MP and Mujahdeen Khleek the Iranian group.
23.Canada: Arthur Mill Holland for 9.6 millions
24.USA: 2 for 17.5 millions including Shaker Khafaji and Samer Finsent
32.France: 11 for 169 millions including French Arab association
33.China: 5 for 84.1 millions
35.Palestinians: 6 for 37 millions including PLO and Abo Abas
36.Egypt: 11 for 82 millions including Khaled Jamal Abd Al Naser, Emad Eljalda and other companies
48.Swiss: 11 for 81 millions
52.Russia: the largest. 1 milliard and 366 millions given to the state! And the others are 46 individuals, parties, statesmen, and companies etc, given 1343.5 millions!

The swiss haven't changed their time-honoured traditions?
And a whole bunch of mohammad-bin-shoebombers™, george galloway, france and russia were also profiteering, while desparately trying to protect their very big interests by doing whatever they could to stop the Coalition of the Willing in the un for fear of what would be found in Iraq after the war?!? Nah! "I don't believe it".

The war in Iraq entailed huge monetary losses for the above. Their reactions at the time and their behaviour then and now were and are indeed very indicative. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Update: Here is apparently a complete list (translated here).

Tim Blair links to articles by the Telegraph and this independant article (which of course does its best to spin and cast doubt by using the well-worn terms 'claims', 'US-backed' and 'which it said').

Nearly every country and individual that was so vocally against the Coalition of the Willing is listed. Millions of barrels of oil each. france and russia of course top the list. And george galloway. "Quelle surprise".
Like any other totalitarian state (nazi germany was a prime example; they kept detailed records of what they were doing in the concentration camps and elsewhere), saddam hussein's ba'ahtshit regime recorded and filed everything.
Do you remember how all those russians, french, arabs and others were so over the top vociferous before, during and just after the second Iraq war? Impotent entities like france and galloway put so much, everything even, on the line (galloway so much so that he was suspended from the liebour party). And all those idiots joining the ~~anti-war~~ 'let hussein continue to murder Iraqi civilians' marches, cheering for their big hero galloway while he was laughing all the way to his swiss bank accounts (stupidity, ignorance, lazy thinking, naive - whool, eyes, over, pulled).
All those russians, french, arabs and others knew what would be found if the Coalition of the Willing went to war in Iraq.

Update: The money quote in this article is good:

"Former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua is not involved, but maybe other former ministers are involved"
-- Charles Pasqua --

Hehe. The rats are already starting to rat on each other. This could very well prove to be the biggest shake-up in Western political history. Enron will be relegated to the 'peanuts' category.

Update: Let's see if galloway will continue with his mindless law suit against a couple of the British papers over the last oil "scandal". This was what he said when the last oil for food fiasco was revealed:

"I have never in my life seen a barrel of oil, let alone owned, bought or sold one"

Interesting that he was so specific about owning, buying and selling...
galloway should be done for treason (dated back to 1997 UK law!!)

Update: Bastard Sword links to a bunch more articles and makes his usual entertaining and 'to the point' observations on the subject.

And french president jacques 'The Crook' chiraq™ took bribes as well? Nah! "It can't be true". My whole looney leftist world is falling apart! Surely only the evil American Capitalists™ are corrupt? galloway and 'The Crook' chiraq™ are as white as pure snow and just can't be corrupt, can they...? I mean, surely they don't know the meaning of the concept 'self-interest'. sniff, sniff.

The sequel to 'mein kampf'

2004-01-29T01:10:00.000Z

Here's a review of hitler's second book, the unpublished sequel to his first book, 'mein kampf'.
Some excerpts:

But of course Hitler was about much more than this. He was also a pathological mass murderer who caused the death of millions and the destruction of Europe, and so it is important to know that he did precisely what he promised to do. For we still do not seem to have learned a simple crucial lesson that Hitler taught us more definitively than anyone else in history: some people, some regimes, some ideologies, some political programs, and, yes, some religious groups, must be taken at their word. Some people mean what they say, and say what they will do, and do what they said.

Most liberal-minded, optimistic, well-meaning people are loath to believe this. They would rather think that fanaticism is merely an "epiphenomenal" façade for politics, that opinions can be changed, that everyone can be corrected and improved. In many cases, this is true--but not in all cases, and not in the most dangerous ones. There are those who practice what they preach and are proud of it. They view those who act otherwise, who compromise and pull back from ultimate conclusions, as opportunists, as weaklings, as targets to be easily conquered and subdued by their own greater determination, hardness, and ruthlessness. When they say they will kill you, they will kill you--if you do not kill them first.

Hitler taught humanity an important lesson. It is that when you see a Nazi, a fascist, a bigot, or an anti-Semite, say what you see. If you want to justify it or excuse it away, describe accurately what it is that you are trying to excuse away. If a British newspaper publishes an anti-Semitic cartoon, call it anti-Semitic. If the attacks on the Twin Towers were animated by anti-Semitic arguments, say so. If a Malaysian prime minister expresses anti-Semitic views, do not try to excuse the inexcusable. If a self-proclaimed liberation organization calls for the extermination of the Jewish state, do not pretend that it is calling for anything else. The absence of clarity is the beginning of complicity.

Read the whole thing.

The french are being serious about deathcult™ terrorism?!?

2004-01-27T02:03:00.000Z

Taking into consideration that some events in france might be pointing to some "waking up" taking place, albeit probably too late, and maybe even a mini version of the proverbial gauntlet being thrown down; and also that they've had their very own algerian deathcult™ terrorists blowing up a few 'metros' a wile back: This is interesting.
The thought does come to mind that the US can not be accused of being the only nation to deploy fighters to escort passenger planes entering or flying over their airspace.

There is of course the usual whining:

The unions said that pilots were alarmed by French Air Force Mirage jets taking up position close behind airliners without warning. “The unions deplore this excessive security, which could endanger the lives of passengers and crew,” the SNPL, CGT and SCPNAC unions said. “It is difficult for pilots when they are in the sights of combat aircraft.”

Hmmm... excessive security, which could endanger the lives of passengers and crew? Difficult for pilots when they are in the sights of combat aircraft?
The french airforce isn't the best in the world but they're not that bad either. And surely these airline pilots would be in a lot more difficulty if they were in the sights of a mohammad-bin-shoebomber™ about to use one of these mobile phones on them or if some other muslimist was about to slit their throat with a Stanley knife.

The Mirages are routinely escorting flights arriving from the Middle East, the US and elsewhere.

So is that everywhere then or...? Can't ~~news~~ sensationalist fiction papers ever be clear or otherwise just omit their usual waffle if they don't have the required information? In the universe where pigs fly, maybe.
And here's a typical union official for you:

Dominique Bonnet, an Air France pilot and SNPL union official, said. “They come up behind, so they are not seen by the pilots and passengers and presumably that is where they can aim at us best.”

Hehe. This guy must have actually done a little "research" on the subject. Or maybe he's just guessing. Radar guided missiles are fine from most directions but coming in on your target's six o'clock is indeed, for a variety of reasons, usually 'best'.
Finally there's this little tidbit:

Any order to shoot at a civilian aircraft would have to come from Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, they say.

Why the leftists hate Israel (and the US)

2004-01-23T04:32:00.000Z

The leftist latte liberal chattering classes™ are one of today's bastions of vitriolic, blind hatred and biggotry, emanating from the usual lack of factual knowledge and context (in which to place that knowledge) required to reach such a state of mind. This is of course combined with the requisite, near-total and blind adherence to 'the ideology'™ (which is of course "the perfect ideology"™ (what else could it be and don't you dare suggest otherwise or you'll be shot!) and will solve all past, current and future problems if only those pesky people who don't fit in - usually the Jews and now of course also the Americans - didn't exist. Therefore they, of course (isn't it obvious? can't you see?) "have to be deported or, better yet, exterminated". Or if they're (curses, curses) too powerful to kill, vilified).

Not surprisingly, the two currently predominant incarnations of that attitude towards life, looney leftistism and muslimism, don't only look a lot like each other, but they actually are virtually identical in their behaviour, rhetoric and strategy and the tactics they employ. Moreover, they have, over the last ten years or so, been increasingly working together towards the common cause for hatred™.

Of all the formerly separate groups that strove for that particular cause - stalinists, white supremacists, trotskyists, kkk, mecha, black panthers, muslim brotherhood, anarchists, environmental ~~activists~~ terrorists, neo-nazis, marxists, ira, eta, plo, abu nidal, black september, hizebola, leninists, aryan botherhood, the red brigades, etc. ad infinitum - it seems only the kkk/white supremacists and neo-nazis have not yet been assimilated into this broader movement for hatred.

The American Thinker takes a closer look at the leftists and their hatred.

The primary lesson of history

2004-01-21T04:45:00.000Z

I read the following on this LGF discussion thread.
It is a wonderfully succinct quote to accompany this earlier post:

The primary lesson of history is "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it"

Winston Churchill

2004-01-20T01:18:00.000Z

in one of his best-known quotes.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

-- Winston Churchill --

Update. Some more quotes on capitalism:

Capitalism says, "Here is the ladder, let all climb who can"; socialism says "Here is the line, wait your turn".

Friedrich Hayek said: "Capitalism lets you buy what you want. Socialism makes you dependent on someone in power giving it to you."

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-- Thomas Edison --

From where do we get our information?

2004-01-18T17:45:00.000Z

This is one of the most important questions you can ask. It affects all areas of our lives; money, health, stability, security, happiness, enjoyment, the list is endless.
It of course also, usually in somewhat less tangible ways, affects how we each individually and collectively view the world and the people around us.
Orson Scott Card takes a look at this:

Against all evidence, the reporters tell us that they saw exactly what they expected -- no, what they longed -- to see.

The first reality check is a thorough knowledge of history. Human behavior has not changed a whit in any important way for the past four thousand years. There are patterns of causality; certain kinds of things happen over and over, for similar reasons and with similar results. So when you see them happening again, but with an accompanying story about how wonderful and new they are, you're better able to look at them with skepticism.

Murray's Rule

2004-01-16T15:19:00.000Z

Murray's Rule:

Any country with "democratic" in the title isn't.

The un lists:
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (aka north korea)
Democratic Republic of the Congo
German Democratic Republic (aka east germany)
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Democratic Yemen (aka yemen)

Choosing sides

2004-01-13T18:49:00.000Z

There is a saying that "to win a battle, you have to beat the enemy's army. To win the war, you need to beat their country".
Choosing sides is a major part of that fight.

Update: Here are a couple of interesting posts about fighting a 'total war':
The March Toward Total War and Before We Grow Too Ugly.

Spot on

2004-01-13T03:32:00.000Z

As Jonathan Kay of Canada's National Post once memorably put it (from Mark Steyn):

If Robert Mugabe walked into an Arab League summit he'd be the most democratically legitimate leader in the room.

Today's quote

2004-01-11T23:45:00.000Z

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Articles on the deathcult™

2004-01-11T16:53:00.000Z

Powerline looks at some recent articles about the deathcult™.
hizballahland, Curb your islam, World War III and Geo-politics for beginners.

Priceless

2004-01-11T16:18:00.000Z

From An Englishman's Castle, this little gem.

So the German relatives are over staying with us for a couple of days. My little Girl is playing with her new dolls house. The visiting child opens the attic and spots some dolls. "Oh look, dere are some hiding in der attic. I vonder who they are?"

Thank goodness I managed to stifle my automatic response, "the Frank family" otherwise I think it would have been a very frosty evening.

Interview with the deathcult™

2004-01-09T18:37:00.000Z

Today's 'tidbit' comes from James Lileks (spotted it on Tim Blair)

Update: Looks like the real life deathcult™ is copying parody:

"She is not going to be the last (attacker) because the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe," Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said. [emphasis added]

WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE TO SPEAK ENGLISH?

2004-01-09T16:04:00.000Z

An officer in the U.S. Naval reserve was attending a conference that included admirals from both the U.S. Navy and the french navy. At a cocktail reception, he found himself in a small group that included personnel from both navies.

The french admiral started complaining that whereas Europeans learned many languages, Americans learned only English. He then asked: "Why is it that we have to speak English in these conferences rather than you speak french?"

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: "Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you would not have to speak German."

The group became silent.

The music business

2004-01-08T15:04:00.000Z

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway
where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side."

-- Hunter S. Thompson --

Words are easy

2004-01-07T00:12:00.000Z

"Bush = hitler"™; "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"™; and so on and so forth.
As the saying goes: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, criticise".
So much easier to lie, complain, piss and moan: "Oh, life is so unfair. Why do things never go my way. It's all America's fault. Blah blah blah." etc. ad infinitum.

Life is the way it is, so deal with it. The fact remains that if you want something, you go get it. Everybody else does (in some way or another). And the only person who's going to stand up for you is yours truly, your very self (you usually get some assistance from good friends and family but not so much if you take that for granted and abuse their help)

If, for instance, chamberlain and the french had stood up to hitler in 1936 when he (in violation of the Treaty of Versailles) sent german troops into the Rhineland, WWII might not have started a few years later (The discussion about what might have been e.g. if WWII had started in the mid-1940s instead, when german scientists could have potentially already developed the atom bomb and other much more powerful weapons for the german military, is a discussion in itself)
The fact is that chamberlain and the french didn't do anything effective and WWII ensued (which, seeing that they allowed something that disastrous to happen because of their own gross negligence, makes them partially responsible for the 60 million people who died as a result)

Bush, Howard, Blair, Aznar and Miller (subsequently joined by others) recently did what they did in Iraq. And many things have come out of those actions, many good things in my opinion.
Good without a doubt is that the Iraqi people are no longer being terrorised and "vanished in the middle of the night" by their former ba'ahtshit dictators and the fedayeen thugs.
Good is that the world where people who are not subject to random acts of death and mutilation by their totalitarian regime, where those people who have more choices and more freedom, has just been expanded by one more country. In view of the concept of keeping your own destiny as much as possible in your own hands, and I was lucky to be born in and live in a country where that is more the case than in many of the other countries on this planet, this is definitely a good thing.
It is also good that there is now one more oil producing country that isn't being run by a bunch of totalitarian thugs. Being at the mercy of said thugs because they happen to be sitting on top of some of the world's largest oil reserves is not good. A repeat of the sort of opec oil embargo we suffered in the 70s would not be a good thing. (Much better of course, would be to end the world's dependance on totalitarian arab dictatorship oil entirely. Technology is getting us there but our politicians and the oil companies are, surprise surprise, not too keen on getting us there quickly)

People however live in their own little "reality" and love to wax eloquently about it. But many of those "realities" are rather far removed from reality i.e. the way it is. And words come easy when you got it good. They can come easy when you got it bad too, but secret police bullets in the neck and plastic shredders come just as easy in those places.

- Regarding the looney left's current favourite "Bush = hitler"™; do some research about hitler and start showing some respect for his victims.
- Regarding the mantra "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"™; get real and do some research about the perpetrators of terrorism and those who fund them.
- Regarding the ever popular "USA = nazi germany"™; once again, do some research about the nazi regime (try starting here if you're interested) and show some respect for it's victims.
- Regarding the mass media's favourite "Iraq is a quagmire"™; Get your facts straight and get the context, into which you place those facts, right (like these people seem to have done). The media's job is to sell more ~~news~~ sensationalist fiction (aka infotainment), which in turn generates more advertising revenue. It is not their job to report facts.
Doom, Death and Destruction™ sells. Facts don't, it seems.

So do your own research and at least try to know what you're talking about, before spewing out your oh so important opinion on things you very probably don't know enough about.

The NoBody Count

2004-01-05T12:02:00.000Z

I spotted today's 'tidbit' on InstaPundit:
The Blog o'RAM NoBody Count has a running tally of the number of lives saved in Iraq each day.
I suppose some might dismiss it as merely hypothetical or just abstract maths. In the continuing quest to understand what's happening in the world around us however, it does paint a vivid picture.

Update: Blog o'RAM follows up on all the comments and other responses they received. I noticed this very true statement, and most eloquently put it is too.

The real world sometimes offers no right choice, just a range of murky wrong choices, and you have to try to pick the best of a bad lot.

And this to round off:

And finally, Tommy G asks a question that deserves to be quoted and answered: "UML Guy - do you guys remember when the left used to be about 'remembering the past' and 'historical perspective'? Yeah, me too. Weren't those heady days?" Yep, Tommy, I remember: that was when I was a Democrat.

What is really revealed...

2004-01-04T03:09:00.000Z

Let me start off by touching upon the phenomenon of the 'accusation' - i.e. when someone accuses someone (or something) else of something - and the well-known pattern that, most times, the accusation itself actually reveals quite a bit about the accuser while having little or no bearing on the accused. The typical sequence being that the accuser looks at him or herself in the mirror, sees something (he probably doesn't like) and reflects whatever that is in the accusation subsequently directed at the other person.

This brings me to the topic for today's post:
One salient example of the moral bankruptcy of the looney left brigade (and some others) is the way they so glibly reel off the mantra, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"™ in such a casual throw-away fashion, without ever acknowledging or even apparently realising the gravity of the subject matter they've just broached. The bbc (bye bye credibility) is a prime example of one of these relativistic entities. Maybe they really don't have any idea of what they're talking about and it's all a game or just "another cafe dicussion topic" to them - ignorance is supposed to be bliss, after all.
More likely however is that they do know and are very aware of what the deathcult™ is up to but simply don't give a shit. It might well be a game but they treat it very seriously, only caring about the advancement of their own insidious agenda, whatever the cost, and condoning whatever sick activities happen to fall within the ambit of their fight against reality. Machiavellianism certainly seems to be running strong and deep within the looney left brigade these days.

So what about "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"™? It sounds like such an "intellectual" thing to say, n'est-ce-pas? So often used, with the obligatory wag of the condescending index finger, to throw up a quasi-philosophical smoke screen of abstraction in defense of whatever turns out to be the looney left's current pet atrocity.
Well. This particular mantra is certainly factually correct. One man's terrorist can indeed be another man's freedom fighter.
As a matter of fact, and this is also where the problem lies with this sort of inane relativism, it is just as correct as the statements "One man's Jew is another man's Untermensch (subhuman)" and "one man's black guy is another man's nigger".

The crux of course, is that which one you choose (just like with an accusation) doesn't necessarily reflect anything about the individual being referred to with this throw-away remark.
It says something about you and where you stand as a human being in relation to the world and the people around you.
So here's a subtle hint: This is not a SimCity game. Nor is it some light-hearted word game to be played over an espresso in your local cafe.
This is a real world, inhabited by real flesh and blood people with real lives, who have real friends and relatives and who do suffer when some ~~freedom fighter~~ asshole terrorist blows them and their loved ones up with a passenger plane, car-bomb or a bomb-belt packed with rusty bits of metal laced with rat poison.
There's nothing romantically heroic or fluffy about that. It's serious. And terrorism is definitely not something that can be casually dismissed with a magical wave of the "one man's terrorist"™ mantra.

Happy New Year !!! :-)

2004-01-01T03:22:00.000Z

Just got back home from a great New Year's party with friends ! (thanks Suzanne :-)

I hope you all achieve the things you want and go for this coming year!
Within reason, of course ;-)

Hell, the properties thereof (oldie but goodie)

2003-12-31T02:11:00.000Z

The following is apparently an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term:

Bonus Question: "Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Support your answer with a proof."

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.
And with birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by my date, Ms. Theresa Banyan during my Freshman year, that "...it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you", and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then No. 2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze.

The student got the only "A".

Seasons Greetings :-)

2003-12-23T20:41:00.000Z

Merry Christmas

From me ("the Wishor") to you (hereinafter called "the Wishee").

Please accept without obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious or secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all, and a financially successful, personally fulfilling, work/life balanced and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2004, but with due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures or sects, and having regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform or dietary preference of the Wishee.

By accepting this greeting you are bound by these terms that:

- This greeting is subject to further clarification or withdrawal.

- This greeting is freely transferable provided that no alteration shall be made to the original greeting and that the proprietary rights of the Wishor are acknowledged.

- This greeting implies no promise by the Wishor to actually implement any of the wishes.

- This greeting may not be enforceable in certain jurisdictions and/or the restrictions herein may not be binding upon certain Wishees in certain jurisdictions and is revocable at the sole discretion of the Wishor.

- This greeting is warranted to perform as reasonably may be expected within the usual application of good tidings, for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first.

- The Wishor warrants this greeting only for the limited replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the Wishor.

- Any references in this greeting to "the Lord", "Father Christmas", "Our Saviour", or any other festive figures, whether actual or fictitious, dead or alive, shall not imply any endorsement by or from them in respect of this greeting, and all proprietary rights in any referenced third party names and images are hereby acknowledged.

Lessons learned and remembered. Or maybe not...

2003-12-21T19:35:00.000Z

Well, well. What have we here? The Time Magazine "Person of the Year" in 1938 was none other than that leading light of one of the more virulent incarnations of socialistism; adolf hitler.
And guess what lesson the generations of that time had learned and still remembered? And those who hadn't, were soon to be reminded of in no uncertain terms...?

Most other world figures of 1938 faded in importance as the year drew to a close. Prime Minister Chamberlain's "peace with honor" seemed more than ever to have achieved neither. An increasing number of Britons ridiculed his appease-the-dictators policy, believed that nothing save abject surrender could satisfy the dictators' ambitions. [emphasis added]

Strange sentence construction but, seeing the tinge of cynicism that pervades the entire article, not to mention actually giving hitler the award, the second half of the sentence does indeed correctly state to what lengths England would have had to go if the direction chamberlain was taking at the time were to be followed through to its conclusion.

A generation ago western civilization had apparently outgrown the major evils of barbarism except for war between nations. The Russian Communist Revolution promoted the evil of class war. Hitler topped it by another, race war. Fascism and Communism both resurrected religious war. These multiple forms of barbarism gave shape in 1938 to an issue over which men may again, perhaps soon, shed blood: the issue of civilized liberty v. barbaric authoritarianism. [emphasis and two links added]

Hmmm... It seems that the Time Magazine writers of old could actually tell their arse from their elbow and recognised a totalitarian system, whatever name it called itself, when they saw one. And they didn't shy away from calling a spade, a spade.
My, my. Times have changed (no pun intended).

So why is it that lessons that are apparently learned by one generation seem not only to not stay learned but, if they're even remembered at all, the conclusions drawn from those lessons are often interpreted or remembered incorrectly? "Never again!" and other such exclamations abound at the time. But a few generations later we're at it again.
Well, it's simple really. The "magic words" are of course: generations and time. Lessons learned don't stay fresh in people's memories. The generation that experiences first hand the event or events from which they learn probably will remember the lesson, although even that is not guaranteed with the passing of time. The real watering down of what was learned however happens because all subsequent generations will learn this lesson by proxy. The mechanism that kicks in here is of course that we're much better at learning from our own experience. We don't nearly as often manage to learn from the experience of others.
And so the sequence unfolds:
1. The first generation passes the lesson onto the second who will probably understand it but, because they haven't experienced it for themselves, will potentially not feel as strongly about it as the first generation.
2. The lesson will trickle down from the second generation to the third but probably only in part and furthermore, many won't learn it at all. This third generation will additionally experience very little to none of the immediacy that the first generation had. Their environment will be different because, as well as things having moved on over time, the very lessons learned a couple of generations ago made for changes to their environment in which the dangers and other bad influences were much reduced, to the point even where the human trait of taking things for granted will have kicked in.

And so the lesson that was learned with so much blood and suffering a while back gets diluted over time to a level where it is no longer sufficiently remembered to prevent the whole cycle from starting again and going through yet another iteration. A new generation has to learn the same lesson. The same lesson that has been learned so many times in the past and will continue to be learned over and over in the future as subsequent generations forget or distort what was previously learned...
Useful tools to use in attempting to remember the lessons learned are an accurate knowledge of history and empathy i.e. trying to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Spin and partisan attitudes, combined with the ever-present human tendency towards laziness and lazy thinking, however play havoc with such attempts...
Universal peace and cooperation among all men, á la Star Trek, is wishful thinking. And will remain an unachievable goal.
But more on that some other time.

Update. The following are wonderfully succinct accompanying quotes to this post:

The primary lesson of history is "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it"

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced - even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.
-- John Keats --